Euro-Arab Youth Forum 2017: overcoming hate together

The sixth edition of the Euro-Arab Youth Forum was hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in the Kingdom of Morocco from 24th-29th April 2017. It mobilised around 100 young people and youth organisations from Arab and European regions to engage in dialogue and cooperation against violent extremism and hate speech.

The 6th forum reflected upon the current concerns shared by young people in both regions, notably the consequences of violent extremism,terrorism and populism, as well as the consequences of armed conflict and violence; the fate of refugees and asylum-seekers; the deterioration of the climate of human rights and dialogue; the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably those concerning education, peace and intercultural dialogue; and actions and campaigning by youth people against or in reaction to the above.

Mila Josifovska, who represented CID during the forum, was offered the opportunity to facilitate a workshop in which she shared the experience of the MultiKulti youth center in combatting extremism and interethnic conflicts. Spending those days at the forum together with all the participants was a great experience, according to Mila:

This experience was very productive for me in a way that I got to broaden my horizons and break my stereotypes. I met a lot of people from the Arab region, which you don’t really have the opportunity to do very often, to meet up and just exchange opinions and share each other’s cultures. I also got the opportunity to facilitate the process, which really gave me an insight into the participants’ understandings of different concepts.